Snowdonia, 1880, & Jane Gruffydd is a newcomer to the district, dressed to the nines & almost fainting in the heat of the interminable prayer meeting out on the mountainside... In the pages of this classic 1936 novel, we see the passionate & headstrong Jane grow up & grow old, struggling to bring up a family of six children on the pittance earned by her slate-quarrying husb&, Ifan. Spanning the next forty years, the novel traces the contours not only of one vividly evoked Welsh family but of a nation coming to self-consciousness; it begins in the heyday of Methodist fervour & ends in the carnage & disillusionment of the First World War. Through it all, Jane survives, the centre of her world & the inspiration for her children who will grow up determined to change the conditions of these poor people`s lives, to release them forever from their chains.